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Duty Federation
Duty Federation was a group lead by Konstantine Amat under the new account name Artyom Kalinakov and Sergei Alecto. It was created soon after Clear Sky's closure, and after Konstantine's stint in Infrastructure. It was formed in 2010. Formation After Clear Sky's closure, Konstantine Amat did not find it in himself to log into his original account anymore, and opted to make a new one named Artyom Kalinakov. During this time, he had some desire to make another group, but feared he would not get the same support he had in the past. He joined Infrastructure after Copper Shriner offered him to join to help with the group's formation, but before it could officially begin operation, it died. Since Infrastructure had died, Konstantine asked his friend, Sergei Alecto, to form a new group with him to see if they could rekindle the old flames of Clear Sky once more. Opting for another S.T.A.L.K.E.R. inspired name, they chose Duty. However, to avoid direct inspiration from S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Konstantine opted to create an entirely new theme. Equipment Konstantine wanted something different for the Teen Grid at the time, and wanted something original. He essentially made Duty's overall appearance to be that of World War 2 soldiers, with mostly hand-me-down uniforms from various groups that had died. He was able to pull in support from old group leaders, getting a lot older, outdated equipment. He tossed it out in favor of a clothing layer uniform, belt, and a commonly passed around boot pattern. Despite the "hobo" look, the group still attracted old Clear Sky members and new members alike. The rank table for Duty was pulled directly from the old Imperial Russian rank table, and allowed for wide flexibility. Since there were many ranks, a shoulder board containing all the ranks was created-- a first for Teen Grid. Since the group had serious World War 2 overtones, their weaponry included a bolt-action Mosin Nagant and a PPsH. The Mosin Nagant was standard issue, while the PPsH was given only to officers.This was a set-back viewed by many in the Teen Grid's SLMC, but for Duty, it didn't hold any of their members back one bit. Another innovation brought in by Duty was the use of manned artillery. One of the first if not only uses of manned artillery on the Teen Grid, Duty used their portable artillery everywhere they could. It was a staple piece used on their base, and was brought to many conflicts. Artillery The creator of the artillery was Ice Cydrome. Ice was a friend of Konstantine's during both of their stints in both EON (lead by Crowe Straaf) and Clear Sky. Ice was Konstantine's head scripter at the time for both Clear Sky and Duty alike. Prior, Clear Sky had "air support" , which was a simplistic system. An officer would toss a smoke grenade on the field, and a particle of a plane would zip past the area, carpeting the area around the smoke grenade in fragmentation shells. Since Konstantine wanted support of some kind, they began working on an idea that would match Duty's theme. Ice and Konstantine both came up with the idea of man-portable artillery. The user would rez a simple vehicle which would be the artillery piece. It had a basic health system set into it, and moving while firing was prohibited to keep a balance to it to keep people from complaining. Aiming was down in mouselook and guessing what kind of trajectory to fire the shell out at. The artillery pieces were hard to use at first with many test shots ending up in civilian parcels, safe land, or someone else's base. There was no set way to aim the artillery pieces, but authorized users found ways for them to work finally. First Fielding Their first ever fielding was during an assault on MH, when Duty felt it was ready to participate in an assault. After weeks of practice, the Duty artillerymen were able to provide accurate fire. During the assault, Catalyst and Duty operatives alike would report in positions to a spotter, which would tell all artillerymen to affix their barrels to that location. Before firing, the spotter would help some artillerymen adjust the angle of their aim so their shells would hit as close as possible to the spotted location. The spotter would then call for the artillerymen to fire until either the operatives or the spotter himself would call for a ceasefire on the artillery pieces. At first, the process of which this would happen was slow-- the artillerymen weren't able to correct their angles properly which would end up in friendly fire incidents or missed shots entirely. When the men got used to aiming manually, they were able to land close-to-accurate fire on enemy locations. Controversy Some controversy surrounded Duty's artillery pieces. Since most artillery batteries sat somewhere outside of an enemy base's parcel, many feared that the batteries were safe landing. To circumvent this, most batteries were placed in clear firing paths, allowing for enemies to fire at artillery batteries. The batteries were on damage land as well, allowing enemies, if they so chose, to assault their positions. Base Duty's base was located in Appalachia, on Catalyst Ops' old land. It was previously owned by Minerva, with tier held by Jeramey Adamczyk. While Konstantine paid for the land, Jeramey helped the group by providing their tier for free. They came into more tier at one point and bought land in an undisclosed location, which was used for training. The formation of Duty's base was admittedly one sided, with most of the base being trenches with one fort like structure at the end of it, where artillery pieces were set along the fort walls. Duty felt it necessary due to their lack of small arms capability. Notable Events Duty was involved with various events in the closing period of the Fifth Gridwide War. During Duty's tenure, they allied with Catalyst Ops and Minerva. Allying with Catalyst was a bold move on Konstantine's part. Prior, in Clear Sky, both armies were rather bitter enemies. Both parties, now that Clear Sky reformed into Duty, found it in their best interests to set aside their differences and form a new alliance. During this time period, Maleficent Hands formed its base on the island of Gordon. Historically owned by Black Talon, Maleficent Hands made a large bastion of a base, making it hard for anyone to assault their positions. Catalyst and Duty, along various other groups that cropped up during this time, formed an unnamed pact to take down Maleficent Hands by any means necessary. Various raids with small numbers proved to be futile against MH's castle like base. When Catalyst and Duty consolidated their forces, however, MH began to crumble under the pressure. Gordon had land for sale around the main island that both groups bought and utilized for spawning and other things. Duty's man portable artillery were set up around the outer ring around Gordon's "moat", with men pouring in from the castle walls as Catalyst pressured through MH's defenses. Because of Duty's incessant shelling of Gordon and the constant attacks made by both Catalyst and Duty operatives alike, MH shut down their operations for quite sometime. They claimed to rebuild their base, to which they did to an extent. They assaulted Duty and Catalyst alike, along with various other groups. They made minor alliances with others as well, but they seemed rather turbulent and fragile in comparison to Catalyst and Duty's. After a few more massive assaults by the Catalyst/Duty offensives, MH finally closed its doors. These battles, despite being oft forgotten, were a technological and strategical first for the Teen Grid. Never in the history of the Teen Grid was artillery used in the way Duty utilized it. Closure After Maleficent Hands died, most of the Teen Grid went dormant. There were not very many groups left to fight-- those left were either allied, or not worth the effort. Funding for Duty was slowly running dry, and the group looked for other investors until finding one. Despite their name never showing up in any official records, the investor in question offered Duty large tracts of land and tier to boot. Duty as a whole felt it necessary, but fell victim to inactivity. The investor disappeared as did the funds, forcing Konstantine to sell the land back to Jeramey and close Duty's doors completely. Legacy After Duty's closure, Konstantine took a hiatus from Second Life as did many of the command staff. A failed group called Ranger//Faction was attempted, but it never got off the ground and never held the same traction as Duty or Clear Sky did. As Konstantine came back, however, the nature of the grid changed. Radius Incentives was born, and some of the original command staff and member base from both Clear Sky and Duty came to form its ranks. One of the biggest marks that Duty had left on the grid was its technology and largely skilled ranks. Its ability to contend with the common spam auto-shotgun of the time was a testament to how skilled their members really were. They gimped themselves with bolt-action rifles, but made up for it in man-portable artillery which changed the face of combat entirely. After Duty's closure, there had been no other recorded instances of man-portable artillery on the Teen Grid until the grids merged. Category:Teen SL Category:Military Groups Category:Teen grid miltary groups Category:Teen grid __FORCETOC__